J&J’s Erleada combo before surgery shows strong early cancer clearance and longer time to progression

A late-stage trial in high‑risk localized or locally advanced prostate cancer found that adding Johnson & Johnson’s Erleada (apalutamide) to hormone therapy before and after prostate removal increased the chance of having little to no detectable cancer at surgery (8.9% vs 1%), cut the risk of cancer spread or death by about 20% (and 29% with a full year of therapy), and extended the average time before needing subsequent treatment to over six years, suggesting a potential paradigm shift pending expanded approvals.